Half of the problem with Southern Maine (besides that enrollment being split into 3 campuses, with Lewiston being a bit out there) is that USM's athletics are at Gorham, while the main campus is within Portland itself. That alone hinders athletic attendance, as 1) students are less likely to go when the events are harder to get to, and 2) the locals having a fit when the streets are overpacked for games (the town's only 14,000 people). It seems like they're in the same boat that the main SUNY campuses (Buffalo, Binghamton, Stony Brook, and Albany) were until last decade, where athletics are an afterthought. The main reason that changed? other than those four schools, name me a public DI school... exactly. All of that revenue and name recognition is going to the privates, so the SUNY system decided to jump on the wagon to get their piece (or rather, take someone else's). Maine doesn't quite have that luxury/problem, as it's considerably less populous. That's why USM has never made a serious look at possibly moving up. If the SUNYs would move up either in the 60's or 70's, then they might have a solid enough base to make them attractive.

MU is public, but would have been private around the 1950's along with UC and a few other city schools that are now in the OH State system and MAC in the OTL. MU possibly remaining private is a possibility in this time line (they do a dang good job of hiding that they're public, I will say that much).

Oscar Robertson (I think that's who you meant) has never had anything to do with SoCal. He was born and bred in Indy, and the only scenarios where he wouldn't go to Cincinnati on any timeline is either that UC wouldn't exist by his college days or that civil rights was taken care of in the '20s.

I do have two kickers for ya:
1) Going to 12 in football isn't a priority. Given that the Big 12 doesn't exist (it's now a 10-school Big 8) and the SEC is smaller now, the only impoetus to expand would come from the 16-team WAC, and the miserable failure of it scares away other conferences from growing too large in football, and they stop at 10.
2) Louisville and desegregation would totally throw a wrench into the works in the SEC. UofL absorbed the would-have-been HBCU Metro University in 1951, a lot sooner than the rest of the SEC. Given 1) the location with one foot in each the South and Midwest, and 2) being the one school in the main urban area of a state, this would still have happened in the alternate timeline. How would the SEC react? Would they grumble and deal with it, or try to force them to look for a move? Now you're looking at a school with a considerable urban market and base, solid football, somewhat competitive Basketball (if KY State is that successful under Gaines, UofL would likely put effort in to keep up with them as well as maintain their football), who is now looking for another top dog conference. Would the Big 10 want to grab them and let their academics build into AAU status? Would the ACC (or maybe even the Big 8) make a run for them?

1. There is still the PAC 12 (Remember I said that in this TL they successfully poached Texas and Colorado), and possibly the Big T(w)e(lve){n} (Missou will probably be low hanging fruit, to be replaced by poaching Colorado State or Wyoming, and there's no real bad blood between Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Madison {And Milwaukee isn't an NFL killzone} ) and the SEC (Florida State and Virginia Tech are perfect institutional fits, as is Texas A&M. Houston's not perfect {in an NFL killzone, for one thing} But it's larger than any other school in the SEC except Florida and Texas A&M.) Though, to be sure, the MAC in this timeline won't make the Division 1A cutoff.

2. Due to the point of divergence itself and the events outside the sports world resulting from it, Louisville Municipal College isn't merged with U of L until the mid 1960s, a little before the Kentucky Southern acquisition. And there is no way I can prevent U of L from being taken over by the state.

As for U of L/K State: Louisville will ignore them and Gaines in the 1950s and 1960s the way that LSU did Grambling and Rudy Johnson. (Even more so, since the Thoroughbreds are still in the NAIA until 1972 and don't reach Division 1 tournament eligibility until 1980). They'll start taking notice in the '80s, but by then it will be too late, as trying to become a basketball school by then will require a fairly massive institutional change, of the sort only a scandal or a plane crash can cause.

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